Panellist and artist profiles

LATE: The Age of '#Slacktivism'

Are politically-flavoured tweets a sign of our lack of engagement or the new face of political and social activism? Come hear the expert panellists for LATE: The Age of #Slacktivism give their assessments of the state of social-political engagement.

Russell Brown

Russell Brown is a broadcaster, journalist and web publisher. He is the host of Maori Television’s Media Take, the founder of the Public Address group blog website and a member of the Digital Media Trust board, which oversees the cultural heritage websites NZ On Screen and Audioculture. He has been writing and publishing internet content for 21 years.

Marianne Elliott

Marianne Elliott is National Director of ActionStation, a a digital community connecting like-minded progressive Kiwis and providing them with opportunities to take collective action on issues that matter to them. Marianne has previously worked in human rights, social justice and environmental advocacy in New Zealand, Afghanistan, Timor-Leste and the Gaza Strip.

Nicky Hager

Nicky Hager works as an investigative journalist and author. He has written six books about New Zealand politics, intelligence, public relations. These include The Hollow Men, a study of three years within the New Zealand National Party, and most recently Dirty Politics. He lectures regularly on journalism and collaborates regularly in overseas investigative journalism projects.

Matthew Hooton

Matthew Hooton is a columnist for the National Business Review and Metro magazine, and a political commentator on Radio New Zealand and other electronic media. His background is as a press secretary in the Bolger Government in the 1990s and his political philosophy is classical liberalism. In his day job, he is Managing Director of Exceltium, an Auckland-based public and corporate affairs company. In this role he has been involved in several high-profile campaigns that have involved a degree of social media.

Laura O'Connell-Rapira

Laura O'Connell-Rapira is a creative campaigner, charity fundraiser, Facebook fiend & party planner with purpose. She is a Campaign Director at RockEnrol & ActionStation + part-time volunteer for Generation Zero. She is a crowdsourcing & collaboration enthusiast & relentless believer in people power.

Moana Maniapoto and Paddy Free

Moana Maniapoto and Paddy Free have for years pursued parallel music careers — Moana as the conscious soul singer at the helm of Moana and the Tribe, Art Laureate and recipient of the New Zealand Order of Merit; and Paddy as half of electronic duo Pitch Black and collaborator and producer with everyone from Neil Finn to Tiki Taane and Richard Nunns.

In recent years they have been working together, both in live performances in New Zealand and Europe and on Moana’s new album, Rima.

In an era defined by protest and challenge, singer/songwriter Moana is more compelled than ever to connect with audiences in New Zealand and around the world. Reaching back to her musical and cultural roots, Moana crafts songs destined to get feet moving, hearts feeling and minds thinking.